Our Design & Process
Our desire is to, like the seed who grows into an almighty tree, go from an idea to a movement. That requires hard work and passion! Here's our journey so far! And at the bottom, pictures of our design for you to be inspired by!
Ideation
Every site in the world is unique! Understanding the climate, vegetation and ecosystems where you live is crucial. So step one is always to strap your hiking boots on and wander into nature. Combine this by dreaming of the impossible, paint a vision in your head of the garden of your dreams, leave your rational thinking out for a moment. The creativity will flow and your inner fire will ignite! Share this experience with your surrounding and be inspired by other projects like ours for example. Soon the natural world and the garden of your dreams will have merged into a world-beating garden!
Workshops
Your lonely ideas can be great, even world-beating but there is not a single idea that can't be improved by external input and boosted by collaboration with others. Our three workshops opened our eyes and mind, they filled us not only with great ideas generated by our collective intelligence but also with the drive and energy that's crucial to achieving your targets! No matter your project, hosting workshops to allow democracy to enter the small will provide you with benefits beyond your imagination. It was surely the case for us!
Build Momentum
Establishing a public garden should not only be about the act of growing food or boosting biodiversity. It should be about the community as well, about bringing people together to unite over political differences in a moment or two of pure human decency. Building momentum is therefore crucial. Involve your community in the different steps, from ideation to planting and harvesting. Teach them as you go about and keep an open mind so that you as well can learn a thing or two!
Design
This is without a doubt the most important part in the process to change the world. The fault of modern industrial agriculture is their lack of planning and designing meaning that loads of work need to be replaced with fossil fuels, pesticides and fungicides, wreaking havoc on our climate and the soil life. By using smart design we create resilient and highly productive ecosystems that require very little maintenance. The food forest melts together with the annual garden in beautiful harmony, all surrounded by a meter of meadow which the pollinators love. Design well and bathe in the brilliance of the ecosystem!
Establish
Establishing half a hectare of a garden in one spring, starting from a lawn can sound like an overwhelming task. But don't let it scare you, make a succession plan and include your community to help out and learn! Our plan is simple, start with the paths and the growing beds next to them. Then move on to planting the top layer of your food forest, ie large trees. Take another event to plant all the bushes and a third one for herbs and root veggies. Enjoy the process and get on with the structure of your pumpkin tunnel and the rest of the growing beds. Plant your annual plants and finish the vineyard. Lastly, place your benches and resting sites. The hard work is done and the ecosystem can rejuvenate itself!
Enjoy
Harvesting will make you feel as light as a balloon. An inner joy will occupy you and if you share the experience with others, the feeling will multiply many times over. For us, access to fresh food is a human right, that's why we keep our garden open to anyone who wishes to use it. Plants which need to be preserved we harvest ourselves and preserve using old methods of preservation. Products like pickled anything and kimchi are available for anyone in our community to purchase. The flavour and nutritional value of our products are second to none.
Spread it
A good act is a good act! If enough people act in good ways then indeed we will have a good world. BUT, and there is a but, at least for us! Acting good in a world where you are rewarded and constantly encouraged to act poorly is to ask too much of individual human beings. Sometimes the system has to change and to change the system you must speak up, be as loud as those who aspire to maintain it for selfinterests. So, please, when you manage to do a good thing, share it with the world, inspire us to follow your example. Be a leader in words and in action. That is how we believe bottom-up change on a widespread scale happens.
Embrace the unknown
Doing a thing you have never done before can be scary but don't allow it to stop you. The cliché saying that only through mistakes do we learn and grow is true. Put yourself there, right in the unknown, embrace it and enjoy the ride. Because remember life is a verb so get out and do good things to improve our world! Why not make a food forest?
